Wednesday, 17 April 2013

Instagram Is Perfect For Brands . . . Get The Picture?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and as if to prove the
point, the Facebook-owned mobile photo sharing app that is Instagram,
announced at the end of February (2013) that their active users have
topped the 100 million mark.

Now under any circumstances this would be considered something of a
major achievement, but the fact is, Instagram only announced in January
that users had topped the 90m mark. That’s like – an extra 10m users in
one month – wow, that’s not just a big deal, that’s an explosion!

So what does all this mean for you as a business owner?

“Uh-oh, not another blooming social media site I need to keep tabs on . . .”

Hmm. Something like that.

But
much, much more than that, Instagram is a tremendous opportunity for
savvy brand owners to explode their marketing output to a visually
tuned-in audience.

As a platform for businesses,
Instagram is a little different from Facebook and Twitter in that it
doesn’t currently offer business-specific profiles or paid advertising
options. That’s what makes it such a level playing field in terms of
business users – it’s an invitation to get creative with your marketing.
And this is something your local or online marketing consultants can help with.

While
other social media platforms may be scrambling to deliver additional
functionality to their users, its inherent simplicity is what’s makes
Instagram’s premise ‘social networking genius in action.’

Indeed,
Instagram may be first and foremost a social network, but it is also a
photo editing tool too. Which means almost anyone can use Instagram’s
technology to create stunning images which you can then share on
Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Flickr and in your emails too.

If
you don’t consider yourself much of a copywriter, then Instagram is
definitely one marketing tool that will demand a closer look. And even
if commercial writing is your bag, I’m sure you will still appreciate
the impact stunning image effects can give to your branding.

3 Tips for marketing success with Instagram:

Make sure the focus of your images is on telling a story, rather
than delivering a series of product placement ads. Your story can be
emotional, motivational, aspirational, or downright hilarious – but
don’t, whatever you do, let it scream: “buy me now!”

Don’t post at less than three-hourly intervals else you run the risk
of clogging up your users’ feed. It’s worth spending time getting
really creative with your content so that your followers look forward to
your next offering, rather than having people tutting: “not them
again!”

Use a tool such as Statigram to help you use, measure and promote
your Instagram activity. You can also use it to create a brilliant
collage-type cover for your Facebook page.

So if you are in business – and particularly if you
sell products or services relating to the design, fashion, or creative
industries – then you’ll hardly need any further convincing that
Instagram is for you. For assistance with creating some dynamic
Instagram marketing, you need look no further than your helpful marketing consultant.